





FISHI 






O 






Fire Island to Barnegat 




KNO\A/I_SON 6c MULLER 



PUBLISHERS 



EAGLE BUILDING 



BROOKLYN N. Y. 



3 1=3 C 



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DEEP SEA 



FISHING GROUNDS 

Fire Island to Barnegat 



I WRECKS FISHING BANKS REEFS ■ 



BY 
JULIUS W. MULLER and ARTHUR KNOWLSON 

Charts drawn especially for this book by Julius W. Muller. 



FRIGE - - - 25 GENTS 



Copyright, 1915, by Knowlson & Muller. 
All Bights Reserved. 



I KNOWLSON & MULLER | 

I EAGLE BUILDING BROOKLYN, N. Y. | 



PREFACE: it was the introduction of large, comfortable, 
swift and safe sea-going power-vessels that first 
made the off-shore grounds available to the large army of New 
York City's fishermen. Before that they were limited to a few 
steamboats which could carry only a tiny percentage of people 
as compared with the surprising numbers who now go out 
regularly. 

5[ The only other party-boats were sloops and schooners and 
these could not often reach distant grounds. Even in attempt- 
ing to go to places comparatively near shore, they often had 
uncomfortable adventures; and on the whole a trip in their days 
furnished more cruising (or drifting) than fishing. 

5[ Until the power-boats came in, the off-shore grounds were 
known to comparatively few men. But the power-boats develop- 
ed a little navy of excellent fishing-pilots. The result is that 
to-day the old grounds are better known than they ever have 
been, and many excellent new ones have been discovered. 

^ This book is the first and only publication to describe the fish- 
ing spots and fishing wrecks off shore. It represents more than 
a year of patient and careful work. The fishing captains of 
New York have given valuable and enthusiastic assistance, and 
all the facts presented in the book have been elaborately 
checked back. 

^ In addition, deep-sea experts, hydrographic authorities and 
ocean pilots have been consulted; and exceedingly valuable, and 
hitherto little known, facts have been thus gained and are here 
published for the first time. 

^ We call attention to the description and histories of the 
famous wrecks. The story of many of these was practically 
unknown to the present generation, and it seemed impossible 
for a long time to get any facts about them, as there were 
practically no records. It was only after many months of labori- 
ous investigation that the editors succeeded in gathering the data 
here presented. In order to get some of the details it was 
necessary to go through old files and shipping documents for 
years back. 

% The distances given here are nautical miles. (A nautical 
mile is about IVi land miles.) The compass bearings are 
magnetic. The depths given are mean low water. 

51 No person is permitted to use any part of this book without 
our specific permission. (yJAR |6 i9l6 |f :% > v ^ 

2 ©C! A 3 97 141; 



AT-^At I N D 

'^ Acara Wreck 36 

Ajace Wreck 31, 32 

Angler Banks 26, 27 

Ambrose Channel Lightship 18, 46 

Asbury Park Wreck 18 

Aspiuwall Wreck 40 

Babcock Wreck 40 

Banigan Wreck 40 

Bank 17 

Barnegat to Fire Island Map 24 

Baxter Wreck 40 

Bay Queen Wreck 40 

Bench 17 

Big Rock 18 

Black Warrior Wreck 10, 30, 31 

Boyle Wreck 33 

Cedars 13 

Channel Wreck 33 

Cholera Banks 21, 22, 23 

Chute Wreck 40 

Circassian Wreck 38 

Coney Island Bell Buoy 9 

Coney Island Mussel Beds 9 

Connor Wreck 40 

Copia Wreck 33 

Dilberry Grounds 10 

Drumelzier Wreck 34 

Duck Grounds 16 

East Rockaway Whistling Buoy 5 

East Wreck 33 

Elberon Grounds 17 

Elbow 14 

Elizabeth Wreck 37 

England Banks 17 

Equator Wreck 40 

Eugenie Wreck 40 

Evelyn Wreck 33 

Evolution Grounds 20 

False Hook 12, 13 

Farms 27, 28 

Fire Island to Barnegat Map 24 

Fire Island Light House 9 

Fire Island Light Ship 9 

Fire Island Whistling Buoy 9 

Fire Island Wreck 34, 40 

Flat Rock 18 

Flynns Knoll 12 

Freeport Section Map 41 

Garwood Wreck 40 

Gazelle Wreck 40 

Glecola Wreck 40 

Governor Wreck 33 

Granite Wreck 33 

Grant Wreck 40 

Great South Bay 46-48 

Great South Bay Maps 39, 41, 43, 45, 47 

Hanna Wreck 40 

Harbor Entrance Map 19 

Harding Wreck 40 

Hargraves Wreck 42 

Hempstead Bay Map 39 

Henuessy Wreck 40 

Highland Grounds 13 

Highlands Navesink 13 

Holcomb Wreck 40 

Holway Wreck 40 

Howard Wreck 36 

Iberia Wreck 34 

Inshore Grounds Maps 11—19 

Italian Wreck 31, 32 

Jones Inlet 36, 37, 40, 48 

Jordan, E. B 18 

Julia Wreck 40 

Keene Wreck 40 

Kenyon Wreck 33 

Kirk Wreck 40 

Klondike Banks 18 

Knoll, The 16 

Lawrence Wreck 33 

Libby Wreck 40 

Lindsay Wreck , 33 



E X 



Page 

Little Rock 18 

Lung Beach Bass Grounds 6 

Long Beach Grounds 5 

LoDg Beach Ground Maps 7, 24 

Long Beach Stone Pile 8 

Long Beach Whistling Buoy 5, 6, 27 

Long Beach Wrecks 40 

Long Branch Ground 17 

Long Island Coast Map 7, 24 

Lotus Wreck 40 

Low Wreck 40 

Manhattan Beach Stone Pile 9 

McFarland Wreck 40 

Mekhior Wreck 40 

Middle Grounds 8, 13, 16, 26 

Monmouth Beach Life Saving Station. 14 

Kavesiak Highlands 13 

Never-fail 17 

New England Bank 17 

New Jersey Coast Map 15, 24 

New Jersey Reef 27 

New Middle Ground 8, 2 7 

Nigger Grounds 16 

Nor' East Grounds 6 

Nor' West Grounds 8 

Off-shore Wrecks 42 

Oil Spot 13 

Oil Wreck 35 

Ossoli, Margaret Fuller 37 

Outer Middle Ground 13, 46 

Peter Rickmers Wreck 35 

Pliny Wreck 40 

Rattle-Snake 14 

Rhoda Wreck 37 

Rickmers Wreck 35 

Rockaway Buoys 10 

Rockawav Mussel Beds 9 

Rocky Ground 27, 28 

Rocky Hill 14 

Romer Shoals 10 

Rusland Wreck 40 

Sabao Wreck 40 

Saddle Rock 21 

h^andy Hook Bay Map 29 

Sandy Hook Grounds 12 

Sandv Hook Lig'ht-ship 46 

Schuyler, J. B 17 

Scotland Light-ship 44, 46 

Scotland Wreck 46 

Scow Wreck 33, 36, 37 

Seabright Grounds 14 

Seagull Banks 20 

Seventeen Fathom Bank 28, 30 

Shark River Grounds 18 

Shark's Ledge 18 

Short Beach Wrecks 40 

Shrewsbury River Map 29 

Shrewsbury Rocks 14 

Silsby Wreck 40 

Snow Wreck 33 

Soule Wreck 33 

Spermaceti Oove 12, 40 

Sou' East Grounds 6, 8 

Sou' West Spit 12 

South Oyster Bay Map 43 

Stairs Wreck 42 

otaten Island Banks 16 

Tea Wreck 36 

Tolck, David H. Wreck 42 

Tucker Wreck 40 

Turner Wreck 33 

I nibria 34 

Vieksburgh Wreck 38 

Vizcaya Wreck 42 

Warden, J. S 20 

Washington Wreck 42 

AVeaver Wreck 42 

West End Ground 17 

West End Pier Bell Buoy 9 

Willey Wreck 33 

Yates Wreck 40 



Where The Fish Feed 



<f| There is no city in the world that has as many citizens who 
fish regularly for sport in the open sea as New York. Few 
large cities have such good fishing grounds so near to them. 
From its coasts, to a line drawn through the ocean from Fire 
Island to Barnegat, there is a truly extraordinary range of 
fishing places. 

^ Although they have been fished for more than a century, 
they are apparently as good as ever. They cannot be fished 
out, because they are natural feeding grounds to which the fish 
come in hordes from the deep ocean every season. 

^ The fish may not always be in a particular spot, because 
the schools move around for reasons which even the best fisher- 
man has not yet studied out. It happens, also, that they may 
be on a ground in great numbers, but refuse to bite for a time. 
But the fishermen who go out regularly, are pretty sure to 
make good catches in the aggregate. 

^ Although the various grounds and wrecks have been known 
so long, there never has been a successful effort to describe 
them authoritatively until now. 

«jj In the following pages the grounds are described beginning 
with the Long Island grounds from Fire Island westward along 
Long Beach, then the Rockaway and Coney Island grounds, 
the New Jersey grounds, and finally the off'-shore banks furth- 
est out. After these come the wrecks. Their stories are told 
here for the first time. 



LONG BEACH GROUNDS. The fishing places known 

under this general name lie 
fairly close to the Long Island shore, in an area of sea between 
Rockaway Inlet and Fire Island Inlet, a stretch 28% miles long. 
Many small inlets open into the Atlantic Ocean between these 
two big inlets, the most important being Jones Inlet. The 
waters inside are part of Great South Bay but have local names. 
5[ The area behind Long Beach is officially designated Hemp- 
stead Bay, but as it is less a bay than a collection of intricate 
channels, the various parts of it are better known by specific 
names such as Hewletts, Wreck Lead, Queenswater, Inner 
Beach, Middle Bay, East Bay, etc. East of this section, and 
lying behind Jones Beach, the bay is called South Oyster 
Bay. (It must not be confounded with Oyster Bay on the north 
shore.) It has more open water than Hempstead Bay, and 
widens out at its eastern end into Great South Bay proper. 
5[ The sea fishing grounds lie from 2i4 miles to 4 miles off 
shore, most of them being grouped in the area from Long Beach 
on the west to Jones Beach on the east. They form an extra- 
ordinary range of fishing spots, full of mussel beds and other 
feeding places that attract fish in great schools. The various 
places are much alike in character. The water has fairly uni- 
form depths, from 40 to 55 feet deep, with comparatively few 
parts that are very much shoaler or deeper. 
% Three large red whistling buoys are anchored on the grounds. 
They lie about 3i/o miles off the beaches, and about 314 miles 
apart, in a line almost due east and west. 

BUOY No. 6 officially designated as East Rockaway Whist- 
ling Buoy, is moored in 53 feet mean low 
water, and is the farthest westward of the three. It is the first 
of the buoys to be sighted by fishing boats bound from New 
York Harbor and Sheepshead Bay to the Long Beach grounds, 
and is picked up soon after passing Far Rockaway. 

BUOY No. 4 is moored due south of about the central 
point of the Long Beach shore. It is in 52 
feet of water, mean low water measurement, and is known 
officially as the Long Beach Whistling Buoy. It has a great 
number of favorite fishing spots grouped around it, near and 
distant. 



BUOY No. 2. This buoy is the farthest eastward of the 
' three. It lies 314 niiles due south of Jones 

Inlet in 54 feet of water. These buoys serve as guides to the 
various inlets on the Long Island shore, but their chief purpose 
is to warn ocean and coasting shipping bound toward New York 
Harbor against approaching the Long Island coast too closely 
after passing Fire Island Lightship. 

LONG BEACH BASS GROUNDS. These are not by 

any means the only 
sea bass grounds of this region, but are so designated here for 
lack of a more distinctive name. The particular grounds to 
which this title refers are grouped around buoy No. 4. The best 
of them lie within a triangle that would be formed by running 
a line 1 mile long due south-v^est from the buoy and another 
line the same length due south-cast. Within this area there are 
about twenty choice "si)ols." On all of them in the sea bass 
season large fish are exceedingly plentiful. The large sea 
porgies also love these grounds and are caught sometimes in 
surprising numbers and of quite remarkable weight. 
5[ About 2 miles due north-east from tb.e buoy are 5 or 6 ex- 
cellent spots, where the bottom is full of mussels clinging to 
pebbles and rocks so as to make large mussel-patches. Sea bass 
and porgies of fine size often are so thick over these clumps 
that they are caught as quickly as the fishermen can bring 
them in and re-bait their lines. 

SOU^EAST & NOR^EAST GROUNDS. TheSou'-East 

~~~ ground is 3 

miles east of buoy No. 2, and is celebrated for hump-backed 
sea bass. It is somewhat deeper than many of the other 
grounds, having depths of 58 feet. About 1 mile north-east 
is Nor'-East ground, considered equally good at times. 
51 About 1 mile north from buoy No. 2 begins a series of 
hummocks that extends for 1 mile further north, making an 
irregular bottom, whose depths vary greatly owing to the very 
varying sizes of the hummocks, some being large and some lim- 
ited in height. Therefore the depths range from 30 to 51 feet 
according to the hummocks on which anchor is cast. As a rule, 
according to the experience of pilots, the sea bass do not run 
large there, but they make up for it by being very plentiful at 
most times. These grounds are subject to sanding up. 
5[ For about 2,000 feet in all directions around buoys No. 2 and 
4 there are great patches of mussels where sea bass and 
porgies feed. 6 



NOR^WEST GROUNDS. One and a half miles north- 
west from buoy No. 2 is another 
spot famous for large sea bass and porgies. Its bottom is hard 
sand and broken shells with mussel beds, and the depths range 
from 42 to 50 feet at mean low tide. 

5[ When going to these grounds, the boats often encounter 
great schools of very large weakfish and bluefish, which are 
taken on the surface by trolling. Fluke find the bottom most 
attractive and at most times very large ones can be taken over 
the whole area. In 1913 particularly good catches of these fish 
were made on the rich hummock bottom about % miles off 
shore between the Long Beach Hotel and Jones Inlet. Blackfish 
are found throughout the Long Beach grounds wherever there 
is a wreck or such a large collection of rock as 

LONG BEACH STONE PILE. This is not artificial like 

the famous Stone Pile 
of Manhattan Beach, but is a natural rock deposit on a bro- 
ken bottom of fair extent, well covered with barnacles, coral, 
sponges, small crustaceans and particularly mussels. It is closer 
in-shore than other grounds, being only I14 miles off the shore. 
It lies 21/2 niiles north-east from whistling buoy No. 6. 

OLD SOU^ EAST GROUNDS lie l mile east of the Stone 

Pile. There are about 48 
feet of water wdth a fair gravel and mussel bottom. Good 
catches have been made here, but they have not been fished 
much in recent years. 

5[ Between buoy No. 4 and the Angler Banks is a newly found 
ground that has been named the New Middle Ground. It 
is further described in connection with the Cholera and Angler 
Banks in the pages that follow, as it belongs properly to their 
group of fishing places. 

51 There is not much tidal current on the Long Beach grounds 
except near the inlets where the current, particularly at flood 
tide, often runs li/, to 2 miles an hour. The flood current is 
more noticeable generally than the ebb over the entire grounds. 
These tides do not set directly on or off the shore, as a rule. Ebb 
currents have a tendency to flow south-eastward, while the 
flood tides incline to swing north-westward. 
51 Great catches of large blackfish are made at the various 
wrecks that lie in these waters, some close in shore, and some, 
like the Iberia wreck, out at sea. The wrecks are described 
fully elsewhere in this book. 



FIRE ISLAND LIGHT-SHIP lies 18 miles south-east from 

buoy No. 2. The mammoth 
red Fire Island Whistling Buoy is moored between the light-ship 
and Fire Island Light, a tower on the Fire Island Beach, easily 
recognized because it is painted with black and white bands. 

CONEY ISLAND MUSSEL BEDS . These beds lie as 

close as i/4 mile to 
the shore off the Steeplechase and other piers, and they widen 
out and also sheer seaward steadily toward their eastern end. 
In length they cover all the area from Steeplechase Pier to the 
Rockaway Shoals Gas Buoy. They make a broad and roomy 
fishing ground, although not all parts of it are equally good. 
On the best spots it is not difficult, usually, to make good catch- 
es of fluke, sea bass, porgies and blackiish. The season is long 
as a rule, lasting from May to October in normal years. The 
grounds are usually full of ling. A spot not strictly forming 
part of the mussel beds is the 

MANHATTAN BEACH STONE PILE. " is the debris 

of an old stone 
breakwater that extended from the Manhattan Beach Hotel 
years ago before the sea had made in, when Manhattan Beach 
ran much farther out than it does now. The stones lie in a bro- 
ken mass about 1,200 feet long and only 20 to 30 feet wide. The 
wreckage lies east and west, from a point west of the old Man- 
hattan Beach Hotel to the Oriental Hotel. It runs almost paral- 
lel with the bulkheads of the hotel, and is only about 350 feet 
off shore. It is easy to find, as it is necessary merely to drag a 
line and sinker outward from the bulkhead. The place is 
shoal, having only 14 feet at high tide over the deepest parts, 
while some of the piles of stone and old timbers have as little as 
10 feet over them. Despite this small depth of water, the black- 
fish taken here sometimes run as large as far off-shore. 

CONEY ISLAND BELL BUOY is another spot that 

sometimes furnishes 
excellent blackfish, and almost always offers fair fluke fishing. 
This is not the large gas and bell buoy that marks Coney Island 
Point, but the old West End Pier Bell Buoy between Steeple- 
chase Pier and Norton's Point. It is red and unlighted, and is 
anchored off shore in 21 feet. Originally it marked the sunken 
end of a long wooden pier which ran out here many years ago 
and was a most popular fishing place. 

9 



ROCKAWAY SHOALS GAS BUOY. This is on a great 

ling ground 
which stretches for a considerable distance eastward and south- 
ward. There are two gas buoys ofT Rockaway Inlet, one mark- 
ing Rockaway Point and the other marking the shoals. The 
latter is referred to here. It is a red buoy. No. 4, and is named 
officially Rockaway Shoal South-West Point Gas Buoy. It 
shows an occulting light ten feet above the sea, exhibiting a 
50 candle-power light-beam for 5 seconds followed by 5 seconds 
of darkness. The depth of water is 30 feet. From this point 
eastward to the Rockaway Bell Buoy the ling fishing generally 
is very reliable. 

ROCKAWAY BELL BUOY is anchored in 42 feet of 

water, 11^4 miles south-east 
of the gas buoy. The bottom in quite an area around this 
stretch is partly hard gray sand, partly black sand with yellow 
specks and many broken shells, and partly broken shells 
mixed with ashes which are the remnants of dumpings. Mus- 
sels occur plentifully throughout the area. The depths average 
30 feet, with a number of spots sinking to 35. 
% In shore of this locality lies the famous Black Warrior wreck, 
which is described in the article on wrecks. 

DILBERRY GROUNDS. This name was applied to the 

ground about the Black Warrior 
Wreck when Rockaway Inlet was much further east. 
They were much used in bad weather by the professional fishing 
smacks, because they had a certain amount of shelter. Al- 
though they were so close in shore, the cod-fish were large and 
almost as plentiful as on the far off-shore grounds. They main- 
tained their excellence even after the Inlet had been shifted. 
^ West-south-west 3 miles from Rockaway Shoals Gas Buoy 
is the beginning of the 

ROMER SHOALS one of the best-known places of New 
" York Harbor. It lies between Ambrose 
and Swash Channels, and extends 3i^ miles in a north-westerly 
and south-easterly direction. Near the middle of the shoal, on 
the Swash Channel side, stands Romer Shoal Light-house. The 
black Ambrose Channel buoys mark its northerly side, and red 
Swash Channel buoys indicate its southerly limit. The depths 
vary extremely on the shoal, there being places with only 3 feet 

10 



of water at mean low tide, while others have 18. The shoalest 
spot is about % mile south-east from the light. Fluke are plen- 
tiful as a rule over the whole extent of the East and West Ro- 
mer. In fact, they are to be found from there all the way to the 

SANDY HOOK GROUNDS, These grounds, so far as 

fluke fishing is concerned, 
extend from the point of Sandy Hook toward Gedney Channel 
4 miles east, and all along the seaward edge of Sandy Hook in 
front of the Government properly, as well as around the Hook 
into the Lower Bay and Sandy Hook Bay. The fluke, however, 
are wandering fish whose habit is to follow the movements of 
the smaller creatures on which they feed. Therefore they may 
be found close in shore one day, and the next day, or even the 
next tide, they may be well out. Inside of the Lower Bay the 
fluke grounds extend well beyond 

FLYNNS KNOLL which is a shoal about % mile long 

northwest of Sandy Hook Beacon (on 
the point of the Hook.) The Main Ship Channel flows between 
it and the Hook. It has from 10% to 17 feet of water over it, 
and its bottom is hard sand. At its western end, a spur about 
1^ mile long runs west by south to a red gas and bell buoy 12 
feet above water, which is the Southwest Spit Gas and Bell 
Buoy No. 12. It lies in 30 feet, and marks the westerly end of 
the spur, which is called 

SOUTHWEST SPIT. Besides being a good fluke ground, 

it is noted for bluefish. These gen- 
erally are not the very large fish taken farther out, but range 
up to two pounds with occasionally schools running up to 6 and 
more. The smaller fish, however, are more numerous. 

FALSE HOOK. This is a curious, very large shoal just east 
of Sandy Hook, running about parallel 
with the beach and being somewhat of the same shape as the 
Hook. It extends from a point below the Spermaceti Cove Life 
Saving Station to a point north where it almost touches the 
Hook, with only a very narrow channel, 21 feet deep, between. 
The water averages 21 feet deep. There are, however, four 
smaller shoals on this large shoal. The most northern makes 
out for % mile from North Hook Beacon, has 11 to 17 feet, and 
is marked by a black bell buoy. Farther south is False Hook 
Shoal, east by south from the point of the Hook. 

12 



THE OIL SPOT. This is the next shoal south. It is % mile 
south by east from False Hook Shoal, 
800 yards east from the beach, and its widest part extends near- 
ly 1,500 yards seaward. The greater part of it is only 800 yards 
long and about as wide. It has from 10 to 19 feet, but near the 
middle has a spot with only 10. Its western edge is marked by 
a red spar, (Oil Spot Buoy No. 4) in 18 feet. 

OUTER MIDDLE GROUND. This is the most southerly 

of the shoals. It is 1,500 
yards east by north from Spermaceti Cove Life Saving Station 
and consists of broken lumps with 18 to 21 feet over them. 

THE CEDARS is a rather noted ground for ling inside these 
shoals. A favorite anchorage is inside of 
the Oil Spot Buoy on grounds that deepen from 18 to 30 feet. 
In a general way the fishing is good all the way along be- 
tween the False Hook and Sandy Hook beach. November and 
December are considered the best months in this vicinity. The 
bottom is hard, consisting largely of coarse yellow sand with 
broken shells and some pebbles. There are a few sticky spots 
of small area. The various United States Government struc- 
tures on the Hook are guides to this fishing area. 

FALSE HOOK CHANNEL runs between the shoals and 

the Hook, sometimes swing- 
ing to within 200 yards of the beach. It has as much as 35 feet 
in it, with 19 feet as its shoalest, and can be used by large 
vessels whose pilot knows the course. It is buoyed, and leads 
into the ship channels. 

HIGHLAND GROUNDS lie close in to the New Jersey 

shore below the southern end of 
the Highlands of Navesink. There are about fifteen more or 
less large patches of rock which attract sea bass from June to 
October and blackfish from summer to December. The black- 
fish do not remain on these grounds through the winter. This 
is partly because the water is only from 18 to 30 feet deep, 
whereas blackfish desire much deeper water for the cold 
months. Another reason is that cold weather brings enormous 
schools of sea-sculpins or hackleheads into these feeding 
grounds, and the spined invaders drive other fish out. 

13 



SEABRIGHT GROUNDS. This is the general name ap- 

plied to more or less scattered 
groups of rock masses that lie south and east from Seabright, 
New Jersey, which is south of Navesink Highlands. They begin 
rather close in shore, and do not in any case lie very far out at 
sea. This makes them favorite fishing banks for the surfmen 
of New Jersey from Sandy Hook to Manasquan. Those nearest 
to the shore are the 

SHREWSBURY ROCKS a broken, very irregular sub- 

marine reef of large and small 
rocks making out from the shore directly in front of the beach 
between Monmouth Life Saving Station and Galilee. They ex- 
tend seaward east-north-east ly^ miles and are marked at the 
outer end by a black buoy, the Shrewsbury Rocks Bell 
Buoy, anchored in 36 feet. The depths along this reef are very 
irregular. The irregularity in soundings is caused by the many 
lumps and ledges of rock that thrust themselves up in isolated 
spots from the surrounding reef. Such lumps are splendid for 
sea bass and blackfish, and when these fish are plentiful, sea 
bass often can be taken along the whole ledge, from within 300 
yards of the beach to the distance of 3 miles out. 

THE RATTLESNAKE is one of the noted spots. It lies al- 

most at the seaward end of the 
Shrewsbury Rocks proper, is full of lumps with about 54 feet of 
water and offers excellent feeding grounds. It is a very solid 
rock-mass and is named because of its shape, which is said to be 
like that of a rattle-snake coiled for striking. 

ROCKY HILL. Leading out to sea from the end of 
the Shrewsbury Rock ledge, lie broken 
masses of rock, separated by sand gullies bare of stones. Be- 
yond these gullies, the soundings suddenly strike a large rocky 
area in about 60 feet. This place, about 1/2 ^nil^ square, is 
Rocky Hill. Like the other spots, it is a good place for sea 
bass, and porgies sometimes appear there in large schools. 
Fluke can be found almost always. 

THE ELBOW i^ another well-known rock deposit. It is 
about 1,500 feet north-north-west from the 
bell buoy and makes a decided shoal with less than 20 feet over 
it at low water. Its name was given to it by divers who describ- 
ed it as being shaped like a man's arm bent back to strike. It is 
a conglomeration of massive rock with coral clumps. 

14 










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DUCK GROUNDS. These are called "Middle Grounds" oc- 
""^ casionally, but it is a mis-leading name 

because there are very many spots that bear this name. Thus 
there are "Middle Grounds" off Sandy Hook, near the Cholera 
Banks, off Long Beach, in Raritan Bay and in Jamaica Bay. 
The Duck Grounds lie 24 miles north-east of the Shrews- 
bury Rock Bell Buoy. They have about 24 feet over their 
shoalest part and are a general fishing ground, being fairly reli- 
able for all the various fish in their seasons. Sea bass, fluke 
and porgies are found there through the summer, and in the 
autumn and spring there is good blackfishing, with cod early 
and late in the season. The origin of the name, according to 
tradition, is that immense flocks of duck were seen there by the 
men who discovered the grounds. 

NIGGER GROUND. A small spot about 1,000 feet north- 
east from Duck Grounds, and slightly 
less than a mile from the bell buoy. The water deepens here to 
24 and 30 feet and the fishing conditions are the same as on 
Duck Grounds. Nobody knows why it was named, but the 
guess is that its discoverers were negroes. 

THE KNOLL. This ground lies 1 mile south-east by east 
from the Nigger Ground. It was so named 
because it sticks up from Ihe surrounding bottom like a pin- 
nacle, having only 27 feet of water over it while all around it 
the depths are 42 and 48 feet. Sea bass, porgies and fluke fre- 
quent it in the summer, and black-fishing is good from October 
to the end of November, as a rule, and again early in spring. 

STATEN ISLAND BANKS. South-east by south from The 

Knoll, and I14 miles distant, 
lie the Staten Island Banks. These grounds are 2i^ miles off 
the nearest part of the New Jersey beach, and have 50 to 60 feet 
of water on them. Sea bass often appear here in great quan- 
tities and bite voraciously. They are said to run larger than 
farther in-shore. Sea porgies are found often in big schools 
and of excellent size. The Staten Island Banks offer blackfish 
and cod about the same as the other places of the Seabright 
group. The name is supposed to have been given them because 
the first fishermen to try the spot were men from Staten Island. 
Some fishing pilots apply the name Rattlesnake Bank to a part 
of these grounds. 

16 



LONG BRANCH GROUND, in front of Long Branch, 

N. J., about 1/4 mile due east 
of the great million dollar pier, there begins a cluster or broken 
chain of rocks that extends east by south for li/o miles. The 
depths range from 18 to 42 feet and there usually are large num- 
bers of blackfish and sea bass feeding on the rocks. About 1,000 
feet from the extreme end lies a sunken coal barge which was 
wrecked there a good many years ago, and it is now so complete- 
ly shell-incrusted that it is a famous gathering place for wreck- 
haunting fish. 

WEST END AND ELBERON GROUNDS. These are 
" farther 

south, and begin closer in shore. They, also, are clusters 
of rock disposed irregularly. In some places the rocks lie 
within 150 feet of the beach. The general formation is 
that of large and small clumps of rocks with patches of hard 
sand between them. These rock clumps can be followed about 
4 miles to sea. They extend east and then south-east by east, 
and in the 4 miles the depths fall from 6 feet to 60. Like the 
Long Branch rocks, they are excellent feeding grounds for sea 
bass and blackfish. 

ENGLAND BANKS ^^^ ^^ deep water at the far seaward 

end of the Elberon rock-chain. These 
grounds, also known as New England Banks, are famous for 
large sea bass. They show depths beyond 60 feet, and stretch 
some distance out. The early fishermen were so accustomed 
to catching fish nearer shore that when men first started to 
go out to these more distant grounds they used to say that they 
were "going to England to fish." The J. B. Schuyler is said to 
have been the first steamboat to fish this place. 
^ In a line between Seabright and the England Banks there 
used to be three famous spots — The Bench, The Bank and 
The Never-Fail. Few sea bass appear to have been caught 
on these in recent years. In fishing all this territory, the pilots 
must be expert enough to drop exactly on a rocky spot. Many 
of the good spots are quite small, so that only a power boat can 
find room over it, and even then it will swing off unless it lies 
very steadily. Other spots again have rocky areas large enough 
for a steamboat to swing all over them. 

^ The next grounds along the New Jersey coast are south of 
these and are off Asbury Park. The one nearest to that place is 

17 



LITTLE ROCK ^ small rock-spot, 3 miles south-east by 
south from Asbury Park pier, not more 
than 200 feet in an east and west direction, and only about 50 
feet north and south. It has about 48 feet over it at low wa- 
ter, and is esteemed for seabass, porgies and fluke in summer, 
and cod and blackfish in autumn and spring. 
5[ South by east 2 miles from this rock lies a steamer wreck 
which is much fished by boats running out from Asbury Park. 

KLONDIKE BANKS known also as Shark River Grounds, 

are 3 miles south-east by south from 
this wreck, and bear ly^ miles south-east from Asbury Park 
and 61/2 miles from nearest part of New Jersey beach. The 
good fishing spots are clusters of rocks and large stones matted 
together with mussels. The best places are clusters known 
as Big Rock, Flat Rock and Shark's Ledge. The water is deep, 
varying from 72 to 80 feet, and the sea bass and blackfish run 
large. From December to April there is good codfishing. 
^ The name was given to the grounds because they were dis- 
covered during the gold fever in the Klondike. Captain Henry 
Beebe, the discoverer, was captain in that year of the pilot 
boat E. B. Jordan, which lay off Ocean Grove for hire as a 
party boat. In the mornings she took fishermen to near-by sea 
fishing grounds, and in the afternoon she took sailing parties 
out. One morning the surf was too rough to permit the boat 
to take any people from the beach. Captain Beebe set easy 
sail on his vessel and let her drift slowly off shore. After they 
got quite a distance out, lines were put over without any par- 
ticular expectation of catching anything. Almost at once big 
blackfish began to come aboard. They were of such unusual 
size and so very plentiful, that Beebe marked the spot, 
5[ South-east from here, 1 mile, are several small spots that 
form a group on which excellent fishing is to be found at times. 

AMBROSE CHANNEL The light-ship lies in 78 feet of 

LIGHT-SHIP GROUNDS. ^^^^''' ^'/^ ""^'' south-east by 

— south from Rockaway Bell 

Buoy and 7% miles east from Sandy Hook Light. The normal 
depths around the vessel are from 80 to 90 feet, but up to 1900 
much dumping was done here by scows from New York City. 
This has formed many lumps and banks, some of them more 
than fifty feet higher than the normal bottom. 
% On part of this ground, particularly to northward and west- 

18 



ward by north, much of the dumping consisted of refuse; and 
on these grounds the chief fishing is for ling, which are at- 
tracted by bottoms that other fish pass by. However, many 
parts have become covered again with marine deposits, and 
thus offer excellent feeding places for other fish besides ling. 
It may be said that the region all around the light ship and for 
a considerable distance is a good fishing ground. One of the 
famous ling grounds is 

SEAGULL BANKS ^^ named by Captain Foster because 

of the immense flocks of seagulls 
which hovered over the locality when he first fished it. 
5[ Probably the favorite fishing spot is a ground full of large 
hummocks and lumps that begins 600 yards south-west from 
the light-ship and extends for about i/> mile. On the biggest of 
these lumps the depth of water is only 34 feet, and the other 
depths range from that to about 50. The reason this spot is so 
good is that the dumping here consisted mainly of rock and 
large bowlders that came from excavation work in New York 
City. Colonies of sea-worms, barnacles, mussels and other 
shell-fish naturally found this a happy home. Therefore almost 
all sorts of bottom-feeding fish frequent the place more or less. 
Cod are taken here as well as whiting and ling, and often there 
is fair fishing for sea bass and porgies, while blackfish and 
fluke are found almost always. 

EVOLUTION GROUNDS are supposed by some to be the 
—■^^—^^———^^———^ same as the Seagull Banks, but 
Captain Henry Beebe differentiates between them. He says that 
the J. S. Warden was the first boat to make a big haul of fish 
there. It was in 1906 when he took the Warden to the grounds 
for an experiment, believing that the old dumpings should by 
that time have "evoluted" into good fishing grounds. His 
hopes were more than realized. On a ground extending from 
the light-ship almost 3 miles south-east by south, and sloping 
slowly into from 90 to 108 feet, he took a mess of codfish that 
was phenomenal both for quantity and size. He describes the 
scene on the Warden, when huge cod lay piled all around the 
decks, and fishermen were dragging big fish two at a time 
through the gangways and other parts of the vessel. Few of 
the cod taken that day were under 20 pounds in weight, and 
many ran to 30 and 35 pounds. When the Warden was 
homeward bound, he suggested jokingly that the grounds were 
indeed Evolution Grounds. 

20 



CHOLERA BANKS. This unpleasant name dates back 

to the great cholera epidemic of 
1832, when New York City suffered from the plague almost 
as some of the Asiatic cities do to-day. At that time the 
professional fishermen who supplied the Fulton Market did 
not trouble to run their smacks very far from the harbor 
limits. Sea bass were the fish mostly in demand then, and 
they were enormously plentiful even in the Lower Harbor, 
while it was rarely necessary to go outside of the range of 
Sandy Hook Light to catch them in smack-loads, and of great 
size. In the cholera year a number of smacks were casting 
about for a new fishing ground. Captain Harris of New Lon- 
don dropped anchor on a rocky ground and immediately be- 
gan to catch seabass in such numbers that he hoisted a black 
disk or ball as a signal to the other vessels. 
^ Among these smacks was that owned by Captain Clinton 
Beebe. They were catching fish themselves and did not heed 
the signal until Captain Harris set a flag as an additional 
signal, whereupon they dropped down with the result that all 
the smacks that anchored there that day filled up in record time 
and with record fish. The day fortunately was clear, so that 
accurate ranges were taken. 

5[ The Cholera Banks lie 10 to 12 miles south-east by south % 
east from Ambrose Channel Light-ship. The bottom is partly 
rock-reef formation and partly broken and honey-combed rock, 
some of the lumps being very large. There are also areas of a 
very coarse gray sand, with other patches made of black mud, 
while gravel, large pebbles and shells are found everywhere. 
^ The rocky formation is sufficiently rough and irregular to 
foul anchors. Some of the rock bottom is elevated consider- 
ably above the surrounding sea bottom, which is from 72 to 84 
feet deep, while the banks show depths of from 73 feet to only 
60 feet. One rock in particular, known to fishing pilots as 
Saddle Rock, has such abrupt sides that sinkers rolling off the 
rock will drop into from 10 to 20 feet more depth. This 
locality is quite a noted place for large silver or sea eels. 
5[ The greatest extent of the banks is westerly and easterly. 
They are several miles long in this direction, while the width 
averages only about a mile. 

5[ These are the famous, historical fishing grounds of the 
harbor. They were famous in early New York. Fishing vet- 
erans will remember the posters that advertised trips in the 
old days, with wood-cuts of men carrying thick poles over 

21 



their shoulders to support the strings of huge sea bass that 
dangled between them. Those were the days when the old 
police steamer "Patrol" found it useful to meet the craft on 
their arrival from the banks, in order to gather in the wound- 
ed and their assailants without undue loss of time. A trip 
to the fishing banks in those times was an adventure in 
more ways than the mere sea-going. 

^ The trips have become trips "de luxe" now, and the police 
do not concern themselves with the fishermen, for law, order, 
discipline, good fellow-ship and good humor rule, and the 
rowdy and "plug-ugly" of primitive New York has disap- 
peared from the sea. But the hump-backed sea bass still are 
there and appear to have changed their habits very little. The 
Fourth of July often marks the opening of the season with 
good catches. The fishing gets more satisfactory and certain 
a little later, however. Once the fish appear and begin to 
bite, they usually stay and assure good catches through the 
rest of the season, which, in average years, will last till mid- 
September. In exceptional years they will bite far into autumn. 
When they do, these late bass are huge, as a rule, pugnacious 
and very fat. 

^ The bait most generally used for them is the large, saucer- 
shaped clam known as the skimmer. This is a clam that 
never occurs inside of bays or inlets, but lives exclusively 
outside of sea-beaches. It does not dig itself into the ocean 
bottom like the edible hard clam, and therefore, is thrown 
ashore by heavy storms that stir up the ocean sufficiently to 
reach them. Skimmers are not considered fit for anything 
except bait, though cynics declare that many a clam chowder 
contains them. Although their meat is firm and clean, they 
lack the flavor of the hard clam, and, in addition, nearly 
every skimmer shell contains a parasite in the form of a 
long, transparent worm. 

5J Skimmers are such easy bait to get, and the bass take them 
so well, that there is not much object in seeking other baits. 
However, there are many others that are equally attractive to 
the fish, or even more so. The mussel is a choice bait for 
them, and they take it eagerly; but it is too soft to stay well 
on the hook and is always likely to wash off before a fish 
finds it. This is a rather important consideration when fish- 
ing in deep water, as the time required for reaching bottom 
and hauling up to examine the bait, makes a large hole in the 
fishing time. 

22 



f^ A very killing bait is made by cutting up oily fish, such as 
menhaden (mossbunkers) or herring into fairly large cubes, 
big enough to cover the hook well. 

^ The sea bass are not permitted to monopolize the Cholera 
Banks. Fluke, blackfish, porgies and bergalls flock there, 
though perhaps not in such numbers or with such a rush as 
do the sea bass. Early in the season, ling crowd in huge num- 
bers over the grounds, so that the records of catches often ap- 
pear incredible to men who have not had the experience. It 
is a simple fact that sometimes they are so plentiful that 
good sea bass fishing can not be had until the ling have been 
fished out. 

5[ In the autumn after the other fish have left, the cod ar- 
rive, and remain through the winter and into spring till the 
warm weather sends them off to colder water. Long ago the 
Cholera Banks, with some other of the near-by fishing grounds 
around New York, earned the reputation of being among the 
best along-shore cod grounds of the entire Atlantic coast, and 
they maintain this reputation still. 

^ The cod, like all the other fish that frequent these New 
York Grounds, take skimmer clam freely, and other baits 
rarely are required. For those who want to try different baits, 
there are the various sea crabs that do not "bed" in the mud 
in winter, as the blue crab does. These bait-crabs are the 
lady or calico crab, also known as the sand crab, and the 
crabs known as stone crabs, one variety of which is green- 
ish and the other red in color. The calico crab is by far the 
best. The others are attractive only at certain times. The 
best condition for the calico crab is in the shedder state, but 
generally it is hard to get, while it is comparatively easy to 
obtain them in the hard state at the fishing stations. If hard 
crabs are used, the top shell must be removed, and the legs 
broken off, except the first joint, which is left on. The crab 
then is cut into pieces in such a way that at least one such 
leg-joint is left on each piece. The hook is passed through 
the body, out through the bony ring of the leg joint and far 
enough into the meat of the leg to hide the point of the hook. 

23 








4 <i^ 



^ 






.0 



^ 




^^isii^^s^ 



f 



FIRE ISL. 




rO BAENEGAT. 



MIDDLE GROUNDS. This is only one of many fishing 

spots known by that name. It lies 
1% miles west-south-west from the Cholera Banks. As a 
matter of fact, the Cholera Banks, the Middle Ground and the 
Angler Banks really are one great submarine rock formation, 
and the sandy belts that divide them are probably due only 
to the fact that a continual process of sanding-up and un- 
covering is going on in this part of the sea. The general con- 
ditions, depths, methods of fishing and kinds of fish on the 
Middle Grounds are about the same as on the Cholera Banks, 
but it has the advantage of not offering so many good haunts 
for bergalls. Therefore, at times when these fish are numer- 
ous on the Cholera Banks, but not large enough to be worth 
catching, pilots often escape the nuisance by anchoring on the 
Middle Ground, whose rock bottom is less broken up and 
therefore does not attract the bergalls so much. The Middle 
Ground lies almost exactly mid-way between the Cholera 
Banks and the 

ANGLER BANKS. The celebrity of the grounds under 

this name is comparatively modern, 
if compared to the Cholera Banks. The name first began to 
be well-known in the eighties. These banks lie 214 miles west- 
south-west from the Cholera Banks, in 60 to 72 feet of water 
with rocky bottom interspersed with dark and yellow sands, 
black gravel and broken shells. The ridges and broken masses 
of rock are, perhaps, not so pronounced as on the Cholera Banks, 
but they are sufiBcient to foul many anchors and to cost many 
sinkers and hooks. 

5[ As on the Cholera Banks, there is much coral and sponge 
growth and there are also the cinder-like clumps that are the 
habitations of sea-worm colonies. They are famous for very 
large humped-back sea-bass, and the grounds appear to re- 
main steadily reliable year after year. Cod and other fish 
also are plentiful in most years. In 1914 sea-porgies remained 
on these banks, and also on the Middle Grounds and Cholera 
Banks for a month and a half and trips were made specially 
for them. They ranged from (i/^ to 1 pound, and never were 
known before to remain so long, although they are found on 
the grounds every year for a time. 

^ These three places are so far off shore that it requires ex- 
cellent pilotage to drop on them. Land ranges can be utilized 
only in good, clear weather. Even in the early times the pi- 

26 



lots found many hazy days when they had to steer entirely 
by compass bearings and feel for the bottom by soundings. 
In recent years the smokiness of New York and surrounding 
cities has greatly increased the di£Bculty of getting land ranges, 
and the Cholera or Angler Bank pilot has no easy job on his 
hands. This is increased by the covering-up of parts of the 
great reef by the sand and silt that come out of New York 
Harbor. Some geologists claim that were it not for this sand- 
ing-up, the rocks that form these banks could be traced all 
the way to the New Jersey coast as a great crescent-shaped reef. 
^ What may be an outlying part of this ancient reef was 
found in 1914 when it was named the 

NEW MIDDLE GROUND. Sea bass, very large sea- 

porgies and fluke were 
struck in good numbers by the discoverers of these new banks, 
which lie in the direct course between the Angler Banks and 
Long Beach red Whistling Buoy No. 4. The bottom con- 
sists of gravel and large stones, and has a characteristic feat- 
ure in the form of extremely large horse mussels, averaging 
three inches long. 

THE FARMS. Using Scotland Light-ship as the point of 
departure, the compass course to these 
grounds is south by east % east, and the distance is 12 miles. 
They are deep water grounds, ranging from 102 to 120 feet. 
They have a very rocky bottom with sand and mud in between, 
and many patches of a bluish clay. Large pebbles and broken 
shells enrich the grounds, which are covered with marine de- 
posits, coral and serpula tubes, layers of zoophytes, deep-water 
mussels and other food supplies that attract particularly such 
browsing fish as blackfish and cod. 

^ In June and July ling come to the grounds in multitudes, 
and it is no uncommon thing to catch them as fast as the lines 
can be baited and lowered. The Farms are not so good for sea- 
bass fishing, as it is the experience of fishing pilots that really 
large and profitable catches of sea bass are not usually made 
in water much more than 85 feet deep. But there are enough 
other fish to earn the name "Farms" which was given to these 
grounds in joke by the Beebes, who dropped on them while 
they were smack-fishing for Fulton Market. 
51 At that time the fishing fleet resorted very much to a large 
rocky area in that part of the sea, known by the somewhat 

27 



loose title of Rocky Ground. There was continuQl experi- 
menting to pitch on particularly good spots, as the rocky 
patches were most irregular in extent and nature. There 
were, and are, very considerable areas here and there on this 
ground where the rocks have become quite sanded over, pre- 
senting a naked sea bottom where fish find no food. The 
depths, also, ranged very considerably in this locality, run- 
ning down from 90 feet in a great slope to 96, 108, 114 and 
120 feet within a few miles. The favorite fishing ground for 
the smacks was 114 to 120 feet, and this still represents 
the best depths for fishing in this general area. The Beebe's 
smack dropped away one day from the rest of the fleet and 
lowered lines quite a distance to seaward from the locality 
that was then the favorite. They had drifted about 4 miles 
east-south-east from the old "Rocky Grounds" when they 
began to strike fish "big and plenty." They went into Ful- 
ton Market with their live-wells choked with great cod. When 
they were asked where they had made the great "high hook" 
catch, they replied that they had found a fish farm. After- 
ward they stuck to this name, partly in fun and partly out 
of policy, as they wished to keep the secret of the new fishing 
spot to themselves. They succeeded in doing this for many 
years, although followed by rivals at every opportunity. 
5f Until recent years there were comparatively few fishing pi- 
lots who could locate this spot accurately, though they could, 
of course, find the more or less scattered rock-formations that 
occupy the rocky grounds. Captain Henry Beebe, however, 
says that the depths on the Farms proper range from 144 to 
150 feet, which is considerably deeper than the depths that 
are generally fished in this particular region. 

SEVENTEEN FATHOM BANK, in a sense this name, 

which was given to 
this bank by Al Foster in 1890, is a mis-nomer, as there is 
only a limited area that has soundings of 17 fathoms. Some 
pilots say that there is only one 17 fathom spot on the entire 
banks. The general depths are much greater, for the water 
ranges as deep as 150 feet. The characteristic feature of the 
bottom is the enormous amount of very large deep-sea mus- 
sels that are found throughout the bottom. These are not the 
edible mussels, familiar to those who frequent the fish mar- 
kets. They are "horse" mussels and are unfit for human food. 
Indeed, they have been known to produce such violent sick- 

28 



ness that from time immemorial they have been regarded by 
fishermen as poisonous, like the smaller horse mussels that 
stick in the marshes around New York by the million. The 
mussels found on the Seventeen Fathom Banks are extremely 
large. Their meat is a bright golden color. Large clumps, 
matted together and adhering to stones or worm-tubes, are 
brought to the surface often while fishing. Like all mussel- 
beds, these matted clusters form attractive habitations for 
countless marine creatures large and small, from tiny snails 
to barnacles. This, with the deep water, makes the banks 
great favorites with blackfish, and they remain there and usual- 
ly bite freely all winter. Some of the very heaviest blackfish 
that ever are taken in the vicinity of New York come from 
this ground. Strong hooks and lines are a great necessity. 
5[ Another thing that the grounds are noted for is the size of 
the bergalls. They run so large here that they are fished for 
purposely. Indeed, they run larger here than blackfish in some 
in-shore waters, for they range from % to 3 pounds. 
5[ Bergalls, better known as cunners, bite throughout the win- 
ter in mild seasons, and, like the blackfish, can be caught 
from January to May. The largest cunners are caught in the 
deepest water. 

5[ The bearings for these grounds are 13i4 miles south-east 
by south from the Rockaway Gas Buoy. 

BLACK WARRIOR WRECK is one of the most familiar 

wrecks around New York, 
having been noted for its fine blackfishing through more than a 
generation. In early days it was celebrated for sheepshead. 
^ At one time it was partly visible above water. Owing to the 
extraordinary shifting of sands along Rockaway Beach, it has 
had many vicissitudes, sometimes sanding up enough to make 
it unattractive to fish. Of recent years it appears to have been 
fairly stationary. 

^ It lies in about 12 or 14 feet of water (low tide) in toward 
Rockaway Beach from the Black Warrior Spar Buoy. This 
buoy is easily found. It is anchored in about 30 feet. Rock- 
away Beach Life Saving Station bears north-east by east 214 
miles from it. Rockaway Point bears north-west by north 
114 miles. 

5[ The Black Warrior figures in American history, because it 
nearly caused war between Spain and the United States in 1854. 
The ship was a side-wheel steamship owned by the New York 

30 



and Alabama Steamship Co., and plying between Mobile and 
New York City via Havana. On February 28, 1854, the Spanish 
custom ofiBcials of Havana seized the vessel owing to a technical 
error in her manifest, which stated that she had no cargo, though 
cotton was in her hold. The cargo was removed and the captain 
fined heavily. 

5[ The slavery question then was causing hot dissension in the 
country, and the pro-slavery people seized on the episode and 
demanded war with Spain, in the hope that the country would 
then annex Cuba and thus add another slave territory. Fortu- 
nately Spain surrendered her position and paid damages. 
^ The Black Warrior continued her voyages till 1859. In Feb- 
ruary 20 of that year, while trying to make New York Harbor 
entrance in a heavy snow squall, the captain over-ran his mark 
and struck at the edge of Rockaway Inlet. 

^ Rockaway Inlet then was much farther eastward. It is a pe- 
culiarity of Rockaway Inlet that it is continually shifting toward 
the west, and thus the Point naturally, moves westward with it. 
When the Black Warrior struck in 1859, the Inlet was eastward 
of the wreck, whereas now it is west. A few old pilots still re- 
member that they used to leave the wreck on their port or left 
hand when entering the Inlet. 

5[ What are now known as the Eastern Breakers, near the Black 
Warrior, then were the Western Breakers. It is believed that 
Rockaway Point has moved westward at least seven miles in the 
past fifty years. Hydrographic experts still can recognize the 
marks of the old inlet at Rockaway Beach inshore from the wreck. 
^ When this old inlet was in existence, the grounds around the 
Black Warrior were famous for codfish. 

ITALIAN WRECK is off Rockaway Beach and was one of 

the most dramatic and terrible ship- 
wrecks that ever occured off that place. It is that of the Italian 
bark Ajace, of Genoa, 566 tons, bound from Antwerp to New 
York with a load of old iron and empty kerosene barrels, under 
Captain Frederic Morice and a crew of 13 men. 
^ She reached the American coast on March 4, 1881, just as a 
tremendous north-east gale swept along shore. It did vast dam- 
age, tearing away part of the Long Branch pier and capsizing 
large vessels in Raritan Bay and carrying them up high on the 
meadows. At Coney Island it was especially severe, tearing away 
many piers, one side of the Hussey Hotel and most of the 
Tilyou bath-houses, and wrecking the Marine Railway. 

31 



^ In the height of the gale, at 9 a. m., the crew of the west-end 
Rockaway Beach Life Saving Station caught sight through the 
flying scud, rain and mist, of a bark standing directly for the 
beach under closed-reefed topsails. Suddenly she hauled around 
to southward and westward, and went pitching and tossing along 
the outer edge of the Rockaway Shoals. 

^ She struck on the point of the shoals, and her topmasts fell. 
The life-savers hauled their boat across into Jamaica Bay and 
tried to get out through the Inlet, as it was impossible to launch 
through the enormous surf. The fog and scud had closed in 
again when they reached the Inlet. The sea was so tremendous 
that they could not force their way through, and they could see 
nothing more of the bark, though they watched till late afternoon. 

5[ Some hours later the Coney Island Station crew went out to 
take a man and a woman from a wrecked boat-house in Jamaica 
Bay. Returning from the rescue, they saw a cabin-top adrift in 
the sea with a man on it. Although it was only about li/o miles 
off shore, it took them lyo hours to reach it. The man was the 
only survivor of the A j ace's crew. 

^ He told a thrilling story. When the bark struck, he said, the 
crew knelt down before the steward, who held up a picture of 
Madonna. While they were praying to it for rescue, the ship's 
carpenter suddenly hacked his throat, and stood there, raving 
and praying as he bled. Seeing this, others began to rave, and 
presently two sailors and the steward also cut their throats. 

5[ The ship fell over on her beam, and her masts crashed away 
as the seas swept her again and again. The one survivor, Petro 
Sala, snatched at a cabin-top. While he was drifting, he sudden- 
ly saw a great blotch of blood rise to the surface, and the next 
moment the carpenter floated up, and struggled to reach the piece 
of wreckage. Sala seized him and pulled him up twice, but the 
man was too weak to hold on, and presently sank. In the next mo- 
ment another of the sailors who had cut his throat swam feebly 
toward him, and he, too, was pulled up, but bled to death while 
he was clinging there. Thirteen men were lost in this wreck. 

^ Owing to the changes that are constantly occuring at Rock- 
away, the wreck now lies apparently closer in than when she 
struck. This is due partly to shifting but mostly to the fact that 
Rockaway Point and Beach have made out since then. The 
wreck's position now is between the Black Warrior spar buoy 
and the beach, and north by west from the Black Warrior wreck. 

32 



GRANITE WRECK ^^so known as the Granite Scow Wreck, 

lies east of the Italian wreck and not far 
from the Black Warrior. This is the wreck of the schooner Cor- 
nelia Soule, of 306 tons, which got into distress off the shore 
while trying to make New York with a cargo of granite worth 
about $10,000. She anchored on the Rockaway Shoals about 2 
miles west-south-west of the Rockaway Beach Life-Saving Sta- 
tion on April 26, 1902, but could not hold and finally sank about 
a mile off shore. The life-savers rescued her crew of six men. 

SNOW WRECK is the wreck of the schooner Robert A. 
Snow, which sank on February 8, 1899, 
while bound through Rockaway Inlet from Barren Island with a 
cargo of fertilizer. She lies south-east of Rockaway Point, quite 
close in shore, and is excellent for blackfish. 

EAST WRECK lies some distance east of the Black Warrior 
Wreck and almost on the outer edge of the 
shoals that there run more or less parallel with the nearest part 
of Rockaway Beach. Several wrecks have been recorded in this 
locality in the past twenty five years, and it appears not quite 
definite as to which of these it is that now is known as the East 
Wreck. Scow number 16, sank in this vicinity November 1892. 

OTHER ROCKAWAY WRECKS . There have been doz- 

ens of wrecks from 
Rockaway Inlet to Far Rockaway, some of which still need to be 
located, while others have become sanded up, or otherwise have 
become useless for fishing. Many undoubtedly would prove to 
be excellent places if they can be found. Among them are: 
schooner James Lawrence, sank January 24, 1877, with a load 
of rosin about i^ mile east of the eastern Rockaway Life-Saving 
Station — schooner Greenbury Willey, sank October 17, 1878, on 
the south side of Rockaway Inlet with a cargo of phosphate rock 
— schooner Mary Turner, lost 1 mile east of Rockaway Beach vil- 
lage, January 2, 1881 — schooner Copia, sunk off Rockaway Point, 
September 8, 1882 — schooner P. S. Lindsay, sunk April 10, 1887, 
west by south from Rockaway Point Life-Saving Station — tug- 
boat Governor, sunk in 1898 between Rockaway Point and Swash 
Channel — schooner Evelyn, from New Haven to Jamaica Bay, 
lost April 30, 1900, west of Rockaway Point — Boyle wreck, now 
lying just south of a point midway between the Rockaway Gas 
Buoy and Buoy No. 2 — and the Kenyon or Channel wreck, lying 
between Buoy No. 2 and the Snow wreck. 

33 



IBERIA WRECK is the most popular, and probably the best, 
of all the fishing wrecks around New York. 
It lies about 314 miles south of Long Beach. It is a reasonably 
easy wreck to find, even without bearings from the shore, as it 
lies close to East Rockaway Whistling Buoy, better known to 
fishermen as Buoy No. 6. The fishing pilots have exact ranges, 
of course, and can drop on it instantly. In the absence of 
local knowledge, or in thick weather, it can be readily found by 
dragging a weight northward from Buoy No. 6. 
5[ The Iberia was sunk by collision November 10, 1888. She was 
bound in from the Persian Gulf and was running along the Long 
Island coast to make the entrance to the Harbor, when the 
Cunard steamship Umbria, bound out, met her. They collided 
and the Iberia was so badly damaged that she sank quickly. The 
Umbria escaped with only slight damage. All on board the 
Iberia were saved. 

DRUMELZIER WRECK very generally known as the Fire 

Island Wreck, is the wreck of the 
British steamship Drumelzier which came ashore in a northeast 
gale and in a blinding snow-storm December 26, 1904, striking 
Fire Island Bar about 2i/o miles from Oak Island Life-Saving 
Station, 4 miles from the Fire Island Station and about 21/2 miles 
from shore. Her crew of 30 men declined the aid of the surf- 
men, and remained aboard. 

^ The wrecking vessel Merritt undertook to haul her off, but on 
December 28 another violent gale began, raising such seas that 
it was impossible for the Long Island crews to get their boats 
through the surf. 

^ The Drumelzier's crew and the wreckers who were aboard, 
were soon in imminent danger. The Treasury Department, noti- 
fied of conditions, ordered the Sandy Hook Life-Saving crew to 
attempt to reach the wreck. Keeper Patterson immediately 
hired the tug Catherine Moran and started out at 2.45 a. m., 
December 29, with his big life-boat in tow. 

51 They made the trip of 42 miles successfully, but for a long 
time could not use their life-boat, as during the voyage it had 
become completely sheathed with heavy, grained sea-ice. Finally, 
however, they succeeded in chopping it clear, and then, having 
been towed well to windward by the tug, they made a desperate 
run for the wreck and managed to come close enough to take 
the crew off. 

34 



^ Fifteen wreckers pluckily refused to leave the vessel, as they 
were determined to win the salvage if they could, the Drumelzier 
having a very valuable cargo. The Moran thereupon went back 
to Sandy Hook with the life-boat. 

^ At 1 p. m. the seas grew so that it was plain that the ship was 
fated. The Oak Island, Fire Island and Point of Woods crews 
assembled and prepared to launch boats, but the Merritt man- 
aged to get her boat over and the wreckers were hauled in 
through the surf. 

% The Drumelzier broke up, and has worked well in shore of 
where she struck. She now lies on the south edge of the south 
bar, south of Fire Island Inlet about % of the way from the point 
of beach to the inlet, with 4 to 6 feet over her at low tide, and 
some parts awash. 

5[ Blackfish are plentiful there, but the wreck is sanding up. 
One captain in 1914 reported the capture of a fluke weighing 
16 pounds 3 ounces here. 

PETER RICKMERS WRECK also known as the Oil 

Wreck, is that of a German 
full-rigged sailing ship which stranded li/o miles south-east of 
Short Beach Station on April 30, 1908, in thick weather and a 
heavy easterly gale. The Zach's Inlet and Point Lookout crews 
were unable to board her, and failed again on May 1, but 
succeeded the next day. 

^ The crew refused to leave, the gale having gone down. Wreck- 
ers went aboard later, and took charge. They tried to get her 
off until May 7, when a renewed gale set in. Very soon the seas 
ran so hard that the wreckers set distress signals. 
5[ The life savers assembled from Jones Beach, Zach's Inlet, 
Short Beach and Point Lookout, and tried to heave a boat 
through the surf, but could not. They then fired five shots with 
the life-line gun, but the Rickmers was to far off shore. 
5[ Finally word was sent to New York, and the government or- 
dered the Revenue Cutter Mohawk to start from Sandy Hook 
with the big power life-boat of that station in tow. The Mohawk 
arrived after a stiff battle, and found that she was just a few 
minutes too late. The Long Island crews had launched a boat 
with picked men and had succeeded in taking off the ship's 33 
sailors in three trips. 

% The 40 wreckers, mostly trained surf-men, seized on a lull in 
the surf and managed to launch their own surf-boats from the 
deck of the wreck. They all landed safely. 

35 



^ Later the wreckers continued to salve the cargo of the Rick- 
mers, which consisted of case oil, and this effort led to a bitter 
contest between them and the people of the coast. The case oil 
began to float away, owing to the breaking-up of the wreck, 
and the Long Island folk were gathering rich cargoes of five- 
gallon cases, whereupon the wreckers, acting, it was said, under 
orders, began to punch holes into all drifting cargo that they 
could not pick up. 

5[ The quarrel grew to such a pitch that the United States Gov- 
ernment was appealed to on the ground that the liberated oil 
was destructive of fish life. The 'long-shore people managed, in 
the end, to gather up enough oil to keep them in fuel and light 
for some years, it is said. 

5f The Rickmers wreck has worked in shore and now lies less 
than 14 mile from Short Beach, partly awash at low tide and 
with 4 to 10 feet over her submerged parts. Blackfishing is very 
good at times. 

TEA WRECK is that of the British steamship Acara, which 
stranded with a cargo of tea on Jones Inlet 
Bar in a heavy south-south-west-gale, March 1, 1902. Both the 
Zach's Inlet and Short Beach Life-Saving crews went to her. 
The seas were so high that three of the Zach's men had to shift 
to the Short Beach boat on the way. The Acara launched two 
boats. One, containing 44 men, actually managed to land. The 
other with 17 men, was capsized in the breakers, but the life- 
savers succeeded by a powerful effort in saving them all. Later 
they saved a part of the ship's tea-cargo. 

^ She lies about 600 yards off shore on the east side of Jones 
Inlet across a sand-bar and has been sanding up in recent times. 
Pilots predict that she will shift outward again and will furnish 
good fishing. She lies in the break of the surf now and is partly 
awash at low water. 

HOWARD WRECK also known as Scow Wreck, lies about 

1^ mile out from the Rickmers wreck, 
and south-east from it. It offers good anchorage at practically 
all times, and has 20 feet of water over it at low tide. It appears 
to be the remnants of an old barge, and usually affords excellent 
fishing for blackfish and fluke. 

36 



scow WRECK No. 2 is about 75 feet inshore from the 

Rickmers or Oil Wreck, and may 
be a part of it. It is awash at low water, but despite the small 
depth it has become so well encrusted with crustaceans and 
other shellfish that it attracts big blackfish. 

RHODA WRECK is in the "break" about 100 yards off 
shore from Jones Beach, and lies about 
midway between Jones Inlet and Fire Island Inlets. Parts of it 
are awash at low tide, and the rest has from 4 to 10 feet of water 
over it. At times there has been quite satisfactory blackfishing 
here. This wreck is that of the steamship Rhoda, which ran 
ashore in a fog in 1905, when bound to New York with a copper 
cargo. She remained intact for some time, and many men got 
part of her cargo out. Captain G. W. Wilson took the first load 
of ore from the wreck. The ship was broken up finally in a 
storm in 1906. 

ELIZABETH WRECK. Up to the time when the United 

States Life-Saving Service was or- 
ganized, Fire Island and the shore east and west of it, were 
"synonyms of horror" to sailors. The loss of life on these 
beaches was enormous. Many of the wrecks have gone down 
in history because of their tragedy. 

5[ One of the famous ones was the wreck of the sailing ship 
Elizabeth, a new vessel sailing from Leghorn, May 17, 1850. 
Among her passengers was Margaret Fuller Ossoli, celebrated 
under her maiden name of Margaret Fuller, as an American 
writer and a member of the noted Brook Farm Colony. She had 
married the Marquis Ossoli, an Italian patriot, and had passed 
with him through the Italian war of liberation. 
5[ She had a morbid dread of the voyage, and declared that she 
had been warned it would be fateful. Disaster began soon after 
sailing. The captain died from small-pox and his body was 
dropped overboard in Gibraltar Harbor. The plague overtook 
several other members of the ship's company after they got into 
the Atlantic. 

^ Disease-stricken and beset by terrible storms, the ship strug- 
gled for two months before she came within soundings. At noon, 
July 18, in a thick fog, with the wind south-east, the first officer 
who commanded the vessel, set her course east-north-east, be- 
lieving that he was close to the New Jersey coast. Although a 

37 



gale set in by night, increasing to a hurricane, he kept this 
course, confident that he was standing along the New Jersey 
beach. Unhappily, he was further north than he had believed, 
and thus the course was fatal, as it led him straight on the Long 
Island beach. 

% The ship struck Fire Island Beach at 4 a. m., July 19, 1850. 
Some of the crew escaped, but most were lost with most of the 
passengers. Margaret Fuller, her husband and their boy-baby 
were drowned, the latter in the arms of the ship's steward. 

THE CIRCASSIAN does not strictly belong in this list be- 

cause she was wrecked farther east at 
Bridgehampton, but is mentioned here because she is the most 
celebrated Long Island wreck in the U. S. Life-Saving Service 
records for the reason that the men on her were lost because 
they would not let the life-savers take precautions to save them. 
The steamship went ashore in a December night of gale and 
snow, 1876. The life-savers took ofT her passengers and crew, 
including 12 people whom the Circassian had rescued from a 
wreck at sea. The Coast Wrecking Company later put aboard 10 
Shinnecock Indians to save her. They were joined by 16 of her 
original crew and 6 other professional wreckers. 
^ The weather became bad, and the life savers warned the 
wreckers to come ashore. When they refused, the life-savers 
took a line out, in order that it might be used to carry the 
breeches buoy, as they feared that it would be impossible to 
launch a boat when the threatened storm broke. The chief of 
the wreckers refused absolutely to permit the line to be made 
fast and ordered the life savers away. 

5[ The gale began soon afterward, and overwhelmed the Cir- 
cassian. The most desperate efforts of the life-savers, aided by 
volunteers, were in vain. They suceeded in wresting only 4 men 
out of the sea alive. Twenty eight were drowned. 

VICKSBURGH a coastwise steamship bound to New York 
from Port Royal, S. C, missed her course in 
a fog February 25, 1875, and became a total loss on Fire Island 
beach, but no lives were lost on that occasion. 

HELEN G. HOLWAY a schooner of 223 tons, bound from 

~ Cienfuegos, Cuba, to Boston with 
sugar and molasses, struck 12 miles east of Fire Island Light, 
April 4, 1876, and became a total loss, with six of her crew. 

38 



OTHER WRECKS Schooner Edgar Baxter, bricks, western 

edge of Fire Island Bar, November 18, 

1875 — schooner Ida B. Silsby, western part of Fire Island Bar, 
March 22, 1876 — schooner Kate Grant, east of Long Beach, De- 
cember 12, 1876 — schooner General Connor, east end Long Beach, 
December 6, 1877 — schooner Gazelle, outer point Jones Inlet Bar, 
November 5, 1878 — pilot schooner Aspinwall, 1 mile west of Fire 
Island, April 20, 1880 — sloop Equator, Fire Island Bar, Novem- 
ber 8, 1880 — schooner H. J. M., east end Jones Beach, January 
11, 1882, loss $17,000 — schooner Julia, Hog Island Shoal, Long 
Beach, January 1, 1884 — schooner Alexander Harding, Hog Is- 
land Inlet Shoal, November 14, 1884 — barkentine Lotus, 1% 
miles east Long Beach Station, January 3, 1887 — schooner Eva 
C. Yates, Fire Island Bar, September 26, 1887 — schooner Sabao, 
Jones Inlet Bar about 2 miles west of Short Beach Station, Oc- 
tober 12, 1889 — brig Joseph Banigan, 14 mile north of Long 
Beach Station, 1 life lost, March 24, 1891 — brig Eugenie, Jones 
Inlet Bar, off Short Beach Station, October 28, 1890— schooner 
Glenola, Jones Inlet (Short Beach Station) February 6, 1892 — 
schooner C. Henry Kirk, 1/0 mile south-west of Long Beach, Au- 
gust 29, 1893 — schooner Richard B. Chute, Jones Inlet Bar 
(Short Beach Station), November 16, 1893— barge Seth Low, 
1639 tons coal, % miles south-west Zach's Inlet Station, 2 lives 
lost, January 14, 1895— bark H. J. Libby, 1 mile south-west 
Zach's Inlet, March 2, 1896 — schooner May McFarland, 1 mile 
west Long Beach Station, February 27, 1899 — schooner A. R. 
Keene, Cuba to New York, 21/0 miles west Point Lookout Station, 
May 10, 1901, $30,000 loss— sloop Bay Queen, 3 miles west Long 
Beach Station, May 28, 1901. 

NEW JERSEY WRECKS. Schooner Hennessy, Long 

Branch, November 11, 1876— 
steamship Rusland, Monmouth Beach Station, March 17, 1877 
— brig Etta M. Tucker, Asbury Park, January 3, 1878 — bark 
Italia, Deal Beach, January 16, 1879 — sailing ship Hanna, Mon- 
mouth Beach Station, February 18, 1879 — schooner Artie Gar- 
wood, Monmouth Beach Station, December 14, 1879 — schooner 
Stephen Harding, 1 mile north Spermaceti Cove, February 3, 
1880 — schooner Emma C. Babcock, U^ miles north Monmouth 
Beach, February 3, 1880 — bark Melchior, li^ miles south Sea- 
bright, April 30, 1880— bark W. A. Holcomb, 1/2 mile east of 
Long Branch, October 24, 1880 — sailing ship Pliny, 2i/^ miles 
south of Long Branch, March 13, 1881, $443,000 loss. 

40 



MAGGIE M. WEAVER was a schooner of Maurice- 

town, N. J., bound from Phila- 
delphia for Saugus, Maine, with a heavy cargo of coal. On 
March 20, 1875, she was about I1/2 miles south from Sandy 
Hook when a heavy storm struck her and overwhelmed her so 
quickly that no help could reach her in time from the land. 
She went down wath her crew of six men, who were all lost. 

DAVID H. TOLCK went into the surf on the bars off Long 

Beach, N. J., near the Harvey Cedars 
Life-Saving Station on February 26, 1879. The vessel was a 
445 ton schooner bound for New York with a cargo of sugar 
from Sagua La Grande, Cuba. She struck hard, in a very heavy 
sea and wind, and began to break up almost at once. The life- 
savers worked heroically, and lost no time, but before they 
could reach her with the shot-line to stretch a breeches-buoy 
hawser, the seas had carried away five of her crew. 

W. J. STAIRS This was a bark of 1,062 tons, which sailed 
from Liverpool with salt for New York. On 
March 1, 1882, she struck on the outer bar off Long Branch, N. J., 
1 mile north of the Long Branch Life-Saving Station. The sea 
and wind were so terrific that she fetched over, and struck 
again within 350 yards of the sand bluffs. 

5[ Despite this closeness to land, the conditions were such as to 
defeat again and again the efforts of the life-savers and of the 
many fishermen and other volunteers who tried to rescue the 
unhappy crew. It was out of the question to launch a boat. The 
life-line was fired again and again, but even at that short range 
the wind blew the shot out of its course. Therefore it was some 
time before the breeches buoy could be brought into operation. 
^ Then the heroic life-savers who had risked their lives reck- 
lessly for hours, were able at last to bi'ing 13 sailors ashore. 
Twelve, however, were drowned. 

OFF-SHORE WRECKS There are records of the following 

wrecks in the sea within reaching 
distance of the New Jersey coast: schooner Washington sunk 
with stone ballast 3 miles east-south-east from Sandy Hook, 
July 31, 1884 — sunken wreck 6 miles south 1/0 east from Scot- 
land Lightship. Spars blown up and destroyed by U. S. tug 
Nina January 7, 1890— steamship Vizcaya and schooner 
Cornelius Hargraves, sunk by colliding with each other, off 

42 



Barnegat, masts destroyed by U. S. ship Yantic January 31, 
1891, hulls in 12 fathoms — sunken wreck on Five Fathom Bank 
off Cape May, masts torpedoed by Yantic February 23, 1891, 
leaving clear depth of 10 fathoms — square-rigged vessel 8 miles 
east of old mooring of Sandy Hook Lightship, anchored spars 
blown up by U. S. ship Fern July 4, 1893 — sunken wreck 14 
miles east-north-east I/2 east from Barnegat, spars blown up by 
U. S. ship Vesuvius October 14, 1893 — sunken wreck 2y3 miles 
north-east from Ambrose Channel Light-ship, found by Vesu- 
vius October 16, 1893 (exact location latitude 39 degrees, 12 
minutes, 30 seconds; longitude 73 degrees, 49 minutes, 30 
seconds). 

SCOTLAND LIGHT-SHIP is anchored due east about 21/0 

miles from the nearest part of 
Sandy Hook. Ships approaching New York from a southerly 
direction get this light-ship in line with Romer Shoals Light- 
House, which puts them on a straight course into and through 
the South Channel. After passing Romer Shoals Light, the 
ship swings slightly so as to get herself in a straight line be- 
tween the Scotland Light-ship astern, and the Elm Tree Beacon 
(Newdorp Beach, Staten Island) and the high Newdorp Beacon 
(on hills beyond beach) ahead. This makes the Swash Channel. 
^ The light-ship is anchored in 63 feet. It has a lead colored 
hull, with "Scotland" on each side in great characters. In the 
day-time its two masts carry black cylindrical disks known 
as "day-marks." At night the foremast shows a brilliant white 
light that flashes twice every 18 seconds, as follows: 1st flash, 
lasting 3 seconds; darkness (eclipse), 3 seconds; 2nd flash, 3 
seconds; eclipse 9 seconds. 

5[ This flash is 350 candle-power and can be seen 11 miles in 
clear weather. 

51 On the mainmast (after-mast) is a steady (fixed) red light, 
300 candle-power, visible 11 miles in very clear weather only. 
In fog the ship sounds a triple bell-stroke every 45 seconds. 
5[ The Scotland is one of the oldest light-ship establishments 
on the coast. The first light-ship was put on this range in 1868. 
The present vessel was put on in 1902. 

^ Originally it marked the wreck of the steamship Scotland. 
The Scotland, in-bound, was struck by a sailing vessel off Fire 
island and badly damaged. Her captain made a run for Sandy 
Hook, hoping to beach the ship inside of Sandy Hook Bay, but 

44 



she sank when she reached the Outer Middle Ground which 
is part of the great shoal off the Hook. 

^ The population of New Jersey made a great salvage of it, for 
she was loaded with cheese and hees-wax, most of which floated. 
Small boats, fishing smacks and steamers gathered in all they 
could find. Captain Scott of New London then made a more 
complete salvage of her by blowing her side out with explosives. 
He landed the cargo on the old Sandy Hook dock. 
5[ The wreck was a decided danger to navigation, especially to 
ships bound south, and the Government established the Light- 
ship finally. Some years afterward when the danger from the 
Scotland wreck had disappeared, the light-ship was removed; 
but navigators and pilots had become so accustomed to it that 
they agitated successfully for its replacement. 
^ It does not at the present time mark the site of the old Scot- 
land wreck, but is anchored much farther out at sea, in order 
to serve as an entrance light for New York Harbor. 

AMBROSE CHANN EL LIGHT-SHIP was established in 

_ jQQg ^^ replace the 

famous old Sandy Hook Light-Ship which marked the sea-ward 
axis of the old channels. The present vessel marks the entrance 
to the great Ambrose Channel. It shows one of the most power- 
ful lights carried by any vessel of its kind in the world. 
^ On a 52 feet high foremast it exhibits a 60,000 candle-power 
white light of the "occulting" character. It shows light 12 
seconds, darkness 3 seconds. It is visible 13 miles. For fog 
it has a 12-inch steam whistle that blows 3 seconds followed by 
12 seconds of silence. It also has a submarine bell which 
strikes "22" every 12 seconds in fog. 

% The light-ship has a straw-colored hull with "Ambrose" on 
each side. On its two masts it shows black hoop-iron cage- 
work circles as day-marks. It lies in 78 feet. 

GREAT SOUTH BAY is one of the most famous sporting 

' bays on the North Atlantic Coast of 
the United States. It is nearly 30 miles long, and very irregular 
in shape, being 31/0 miles wide between the beach and the main- 
land of Long Island in some places, and only i/o mile in others. 
% The greater part of it is shallow, with channels cutting 
through, making splendid feeding grounds for flounders, weak- 
fish, fluke and lafayettes. It contains some good kingfish 
grounds, and the bluefishing near the inlets is excellent. 

46 



^ At ordinary low water there is only an average of from 1 to 
5 feet of water on the flats. The channels have from 8 to 12 
feet, with many deep holes which are especially good for fishing. 
5[ There are a numher of marsh islands and meadows, especially 
in the Long Beach and South Oyster Bay sections, where the 
islands are so thickly grouped that there is practically no open 
bay, but only a maze of winding channels. These oiler fine 
fishing as a rule. 

^ From the days of the Dutch occupation of New York, Great 
South Bay has been celebrated for its duck and shore-bird 
shooting. From the marshy grounds about Freeport all the 
way to Good Ground the bay offers tempting places for food and 
rest of which the birds avail themselves in great Hocks. Very 
often in favorable seasons there are arrivals of wild geese and 
brant. 

^ A number of inlets open to the sea from the bay. Owing to 
the currents and heavy surf, many of these change their charac- 
ter every few years. Some close up entirely for long periods, 
and others widen and deepen. At present the two important 
inlets are Jones Inlet and Fire Island Inlet. Both these inlets 
demand excellent local knowledge and expert management of 
boats for successful navigation. 

^ Fire Island Inlet is the only harbor of refuge for small coast- 
ing vessels on the southern shore of Long Island, but every year 
some of them are lost in trying to make its shelter because they 
attempt to run it after the sea has become too high. The bars 
on both sides of the inlet have been said to be "lined with 
wrecks," and this probably is not far from the truth. 
^ In addition, the position of Fire Island relative to the harbor 
of New York is such that large ships steering for the port are 
always in danger of running past the entrance to the New York 
Channels in a fog if their reckoning is not perfect, and continu- 
ing until suddenly they are on the Long Island Coast. Conse- 
quently the life saving crews of Long Beach, Short Beach, Zach's 
Inlet, Fire Island and Point of Woods have plenty of experience 
with large vessels. It speaks volumes for the excellence of their 
work that there have been few losses of life in many years past. 



48 



SOME USEFUL FISHING HINTS 



Every kind of fish bites differently from every other kind. It is 
absolutely impossible to catch fish in numbers unless one knows their 
habits exactly. Thus, for instance, it is useless to fish away from the 
bottom for flounders. But it would be equally useless to fish on bottom 
for bluefish. 

Sea bass and blackfish are bottom feeders, but they will never be found 
on sandy or muddy bottom that has no rocks or wrecks. They feed on the 
little creatures that live on incrusted places. Consequently, the only 
certain way to find sea bass and blackfish is to find wrecks, mussel beds, 
or rocks. 

It is not enough to know where the different fish may be found. The 
angler must understand exactly what their feeding habits are. Thus, the 
hunting fish, such as bluefish, weakfish and fluke prefer to feed on things 
like spearing, minnows, shedder crabs and moss-bunkers. The flounder, tom- 
cod, porgy and lafayette, however, prefer worms and clams. 

The tackle must be suited to the places that are to be fished. To be 
provided with the right tackle makes the difi'crence between success and 
failure. The fisherman who takes care to find out the conditions before he 
starts for a place, is the man who will get the fish if they are to be had. 
If the fishing is done where there is a strong tide, the fishermen must have 
plenty of heavy sinkers. On the other hand, if the fishing is done in 
shallow water with little or no current, it may be necessary to have the 
very smallest sinkers, perhaps as fine as split shot, and it will be well to 
have a float along, too. 

The tackle that is perfectly good for bay fishing would be utterly 
useless for deep sea fishing. On the deep off-shore grounds it is absolutely 
necessary to have a strong, stiff rod, a powerful reel with a very stout 
line, and extremely heavy sinkers. This is not only because the fish are 
large, but because the conditions are such as to put an extreme strain 
on all the tackle. 

The size of hooks is one of the most important matters. For deep sea 
fishing the hooks must be very much larger and stronger than they need 
to be for bay fishing. But care must be taken, in all kinds of fishing, to 
have hooks that are not too large. They must be strong and large enough 
to hold the fish securely after he is hooked; but they must not be so large 
that they cannot easily enter the fish's mouth. 

A hook that is too large will not hook the fish. He will get the bait off. 

Every angler, even the most experienced, should have a hook chart, 
so that he can see at a glance the different sizes and shapes of Sproat, 
Limerick, Kirby, Chestertown, Carlisle, Virginia, O 'Shaughnessy, Fluke 
and Blackfish hooks. Such charts give the full size of hooks in the well- 
known book "Fishing Around New York," which is for sale in Tackle 
Stores for 25 cents or is sent to any address upon receipt of price by 
Knowlson and Muller, Publishers, 309 Washington Street, Brooklyn, N. Y. 



LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 



002 870 260 7 




